Three leaves from an Armenian lectionary or synaxary (16th-1 - Lot 164

Three leaves from an Armenian lectionary or synaxary (16th-17th centuries) Manuscript on paper, black and cinnabar red ink, fine bolorgir script, with ornate frontispiece and marginal drawings. Three handwritten leaves in two 30-line columns (continuous text for the title page), in regular bolorgir script, with headings in red. The text combines passages from the Old and New Testaments (Proverbs 9:1 ; Romans 11:1; Matthew 13:36; Luke 19:5-6) and most probably comes from a Lectionary (Djashots), or perhaps from a Synaxary or Homeliary (Tonakan), intended for liturgical reading. The title page opens with an ornamental band set within a rectangular frame: a frieze of repeating medallions adorned with stylized rosettes or palmettes, painted deep blue and highlighted in red. Above the frieze are two birds facing each other, delicately traced in red ink and flanking a central chalice motif, symbolizing the introduction to the sacred text. The margins are enlivened by fine decorations (two mermaids, a mythical bird and a small architectural temple with two columns and a dome) executed in the same cinnabar red. The precision and clarity of the lines of the marginal decorations suggest the hand of an experienced artist.